The new cultivar is a product of hybridization of an unknown female parent Lantana variety and an unknown male parent Lantana camara variety. To prepare for the hybridization, the inventor collected 16 different lantana varieties having red coloration in the flowers. These varieties were placed together away from other blooming lantana plants in March through July of 2001, in order to promote red dominance in the resulting seedlings. The seeds were gathered and planted. In September, 2001, the resulting seedlings flowered. The new cultivar ‘RIVRRED’ was discovered as a single plant growing among the flowering seedlings and selected by the inventor in September, 2001.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar by terminal tip cuttings was performed in a controlled environment in Riverview, Fla., and in Oxnard, Calif., and has shown that the unique features of this cultivar are stable and reproduced true to type on successive generations.